James Lowry

James Lowry, Associate Professor & Director

Rosenthal Library, Room 253

Graduate School of Library and Information Studies

Queens College, City University of New York

Phone: (718) 570-0512

E-mail: James.Lowry@qc.cuny.edu


Education


Work Experience

Current Positions: 


Previous Positions: 

1) Co-Director, Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies, 2016-2019. 

Director of Studies, Certificate and Diploma in Professional Studies: Records and Information Management, 2015 - 2018. 

2) Convenor, Archival Theory Reading Group, 2015-2019. 

3) Member, Colonial and Postcolonial Histories research cluster. 


Previous Courses Taught: 


Research & Professional Interests

My research focuses on government information (specifically archives, records and data) as it is created, managed and used in social, political and economic settings, with a particular interest in the international and post-colonial. My doctoral research concerned the trustworthiness of open government data and much of my professional work has connected with the open government movement. I have been working on displaced archives through the Displacements and Diasporas project, and I am collaborating on the Refugee Rights in Records project. More recently, I have become interested in the intellectual history of record-keeping: I am currently working on a critical analysis of the history of records management.


Selected Publications

Monographs: 

Lowry, J. (ed.), Displaced Archives. Routledge. 2017.

Lowry, J. & Wamukoya, J. (eds.), Integrity in Government through Records Management: Essays in Honour of Anne Thurston. Ashgate. 2014. 


Chapters in Edited Books: 

Lowry, J., Mnjama and the Migrated Archives, in Ngoepe, M., Keakopa, S., Segaetsho, T., Bayane, S. & Moloi, J. (eds.), Memoirs of an Archivist: Festschrift in Honour of Prof. Mnjama. ESARBICA, 2019.

Leonce, H. & Lowry, J., Frameworks for Managing Government Records – Trinidad and Tobago, in Bastian, J. & Griffin, S. (eds.), A Decolonizing the Caribbean Record: An Archives Reader. Litwin Books, 2018.

Lowry, J. & Mnjama, N., A Proposal for Action on African Archives in Europe, in Lowry, J. (ed.) Displaced Archives, Routledge, 2017.

Lowry, J., Opening Government: Open Data and Access to Information, in Lowry, J. & Wamukoya, J. (eds.), Integrity in Government through Records Management: Essays in Honour of Anne Thurston. Ashgate. 2014.


Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Papers in Conference Proceedings:

Lowry, J., Displaced Archives: Proposing a Research Agenda, Archival Science 19(4), 349-358, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-019-09326-8

Lowry, J. & Fernandez, C., La pensee archivistique au sien du movement international pour la transparence, La Gazette des Archives, No. 255, 3, 2019.

Abioye, A., Lowry, J. & Lynch, R., Digital Curation Education at the Universities of Ibadan and Liverpool: Benchmarking Using the DigCurV Curriculum Framework, International Journal of Digital Curation, 14:1, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v14i1.556

Lowry, J., Radical Empathy, The Imaginary and Affect in (Post)Colonial Records: How to Break Out of International Stalemates on Displaced Archives, Archival Science, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-019-09305-z

Shepherd, E., Bunn, J., Flinn, A., Lomas, E., Brimble, S., Chorley, K., Harrison, E., Lowry, J., Page, J. & Sexton, A., Open Government Data: Critical Information Management Perspectives, Records Management Journal. Vol. 29 Issue: 1/2, pp.152-167, https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-08-2018-0023

Lowry, J., A Report on Education and Training in the International Council on Archives’ Africa Programme, Education for Information, Vol 33(2), 2017.

Deegan, M., Lowry, J., & Musa, B., Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Sudan through Digitisation: Developing Digital Sudan, Sudan Studies, pp. 27-37, No. 52, July 2015.

Lowry, J., Government Record-keeping in Kenya in the Context of e-Government. Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association, Vol. xxxviii, No. 126, April 2013.

Lowry, J., Correlations Between ICT and Records Policy Integration and Court Case Management System Functionality: East African Case Studies. Records Management Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1, 2013.

Lowry, J., Freedom of Information and Government Records in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Archives and Manuscripts, pp. 23-32, Volume 41, Issue 1, March 2013.

Lowry, J. & Luyombya, D., A Regional Approach to Building Digital Archives Capacity in Uganda. African Research and Documentation, No. 122, 2013.

Lowry, J. & Magaya, C., The National Archives of Tanzania Fifty Years After Wright’s Report on the Government Records and Public Archives of Tanganyika. Comma; The Journal of the International Council on Archives, International Council on Archives, 2012-1, 2013.

Lowry, J. & Seles, A. National Archives and e-Government in East Africa: Threats to Archives and Governance, in Tallier, P. A. & Eyenga-Cornelis, S. B. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Colloquium: Africa Europe Archives. Requirements? Collaborations? Plans? DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Belgium, 2010. Musee Royal De L’Afrique Centrale. Brussels, 2013

Lowry, J. & Wamukoya, J., A Regulatory Framework for the Management of Records: Assessments in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. ESARBICA Journal: Journal of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, Volume 32, 2013.

Lowry, J., The Management and Preservation of Digital Records in Tanzania, in Tehnični in Vsebinski Problemi Klasičnega in Elektronskega Arhiviranja, 2012. Regional Archives Maribor. Maribor, 2012.


Other Articles

Gilliland, A.J. & Lowry, J., Human Security Informatics, Global Grand Challenges and Digital Curation, International Journal of Digital Curation, Vol. 14:1, 2019 https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v14i1.636

Lowry, J., Nova istraživanja o izmještenim arhivima, Rhivi, 2:3, 2018, p.6, trans. Vlatka Lemić https://hrcak.srce.hr/220307

Lowry, J. & Matangira, V., Government Records Management and Access to Information: Reflections on the 2013 Integrity Action Summer School. Journal of the South African Society of Archivists, Vol. 46, 2013.


Editorship of Journals and Conference Proceedings

Lowry, J. (ed.), Comma; The Journal of the International Council on Archives special issue, Government Record-keeping in sub-Saharan Africa. International Council on Archives, 2012-1, 2013.

Lowry, J., Manion, M. & Spedding, P. (eds.), Script and Print special issue, Transitus. Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, Volume 32, Number 1, 2008.


Keynotes, Plenaries and Invited Lectures

Archives and Colonial Power, invited talk at University College London, 24 January 2020, London, UK.

Records Management and the Sustainable Development Goals, keynote, 3rd annual conference of the Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists, 4-6 November 2019, Mombasa, Kenya.

Developments Around the Migrated Archive since the Hanslope Disclosure, invited talk at the University of Botswana, 7 August 2019, Gaborone, Botswana.

Invited panellist, Round Table on Migrated Archives, CARBICA conference, 22-28 March 2019, Paramaribo, Suriname.

Invited speaker, Forum of National Archivists, November 2018, Yaounde, Cameroon.

Invited panellist, Round Table on Shared Archival Heritage, International Council on Archives annual conference, 26-28 November 2018, Yaounde, Cameroon.

Invited talk on records management to the Information Commissioner and Deputy Information Commissioners of Bangladesh, 15 November 2018

Invited lecture at Department of Information Science and Library Management, University of Dhaka, 13 November 2018, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Information Asymmetry and Access to Information, invited lecture at Department of Information Studies and Library Management, East West University, 12 November 2018, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Invited speaker on access to information, BRAC University Library, 12 November 2018, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Invited speaker, launch of A Matter of Trust: Records as the Foundation for Building Accountability into Data and Statistics to Support the UN Sustainable Development Goals, House of Lords, 1 November 2018, London, UK.

Invited panellist and moderator, Sharing Past and Future: Strengthening African-European Connections’, 17-19 September 2018, Royal Library, Brussels, Belgium.

Displaced Records and International Communities, invited lecture for the University of Pittsburgh MA Archives course, 23 July 2018.

A History of Displaced Archives (Post-Colonial), opening keynote at ICHORA, 28-30 May 2018, Melbourne, Australia.

Invited speaker, The Challenges of Managing Digital Information for Measuring the Sustainable Development Goals, 2018, Senate House, London, UK.

Open Archives for Historical Accountability, invited talk at Enhancing Openness of State Archives, 27-28 April 2018, Tbilisi, Georgia.

Disputed Archival Claims: Twenty Years After Auer’s RAMP Study, invited talk at 4th Croatia ICARUS Day & EURBICA Conference, 14-16 March 2018, Trogir, Croatia

Invited panellist at the International Seminar on the Development of the Rwanda Archives and Library Services Authority, Ministry of Sports and Culture, Government of Rwanda, 21-23 March 2018, Kigali, Rwanda.

Relating Records and Data in Open Government Data Initiatives, invited talk at The Challenges of Managing Digital Information for Measuring the Sustainable Development Goals, 20-21 April 2017, London, UK.

Invited panellist at Digital Archives, Memory and Reconstruction in Rwanda, 12-13 September 2017, Kings College London, UK.

Digital Curation in Low Resource Environments, 4 July 2017, invited lecture at University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Invited speaker, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK, 27 October 2015.

Collaboration, Not Convergence: The Need for Independent Archival Institutions, plenary at the 23rd Biennial Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) General Conference, 8–12 June 2015, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Digital Sudan: Records and Archives International, address to a meeting of the Sudanese Society for Archiving and Knowledge (SUDAAK), 16 February 2015, Khartoum, Sudan.

Threats to Archives and Governance in Africa, Africa Europe Archives. Requirements? Collaborations? Plans? DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Belgium, colloquium organised by the State Archives in Belgium and the Royal Museum for Central Africa. 15–16 December 2010, Colonial Palace, Tervuren, Belgium.


Conference Papers 

Lowry, J., Before Computational Archival Science, Archives and Records Association conference, 28-30 August 2019, Leeds, UK.

Lowry, J., The Inverted Archive: Thresholds, Authenticity and the Demos, Archival Education and Research Institute, 8-12 July 2019, Liverpool, UK.

Lowry, J. & MacNeil, H., Let’s Talk About History, Archival Education and Research Institute, 8-12 July 2019, Liverpool, UK.

Lowry, J. & Fernandez, C., La pensée archivistique au sein du mouvement international pour la transparence, Forum des archivistes, 3-5 April 2019, St Etienne, France.

Gilliland, A. & Lowry, J., Documenting the Undocumented: Recording Refugee Experiences, International Council on Archives annual conference, 26-28 November 2018, Yaounde, Cameroon.

Gilliland, A. & Lowry, J., Reflecting on Refugee Rights in Records, A Symposium on Refugee Rights, 9 August 2018, University College Dublin, Ireland.

Lowry, J., Algorithmic Integrity, Data Provenance and Land Use in Kenya, Data Justice, 21-22 May 2018, Cardiff, UK.

Lowry, J., The ICA’s Africa Programme, Annual Conference of the International Council on Archives, 27-29 November 2017, Mexico City, Mexico.

Lowry, J., New Perspectives on Archival Displacement, Archives Disrupted, Association of Canadian Archives conference, 7–10 June 2017, Ottawa, Canada.

Lowry, J., Displaced Archives: Archives as Bodies, International Council on Archives International Congress, 5-10 September 2016, Seoul, South Korea.

Lowry,J., International Collaboration on the Repatriation of Displaced Archives, Global Futures, Archives and Records Association Conference, 30 August – 2 September 2016, London, UK.

Lowry, J., The Development of the ICA’s Africa Programme, Formation, Recherche, Appui au Développement: Les Sciences et Métiers de l’Information Documentaire Face au Défide l’Émergence de l’Afrique, 3–4 December 2015, L’Ecole Superieure des Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication (ESSTIC), Yaounde, Cameroon

Lowry, J., ‘If Submissiveness Ceased, It Would Be All Over with Lordship’, Seventh Annual Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), 13–17 July 2015, University of Maryland, USA. Nominated for ‘Best Student Paper’.

Lowry, J., International Co-operation in Archival Education in Africa, Social Justice / Injustice in Archival Education, Research, and Practice, ICA-SAE Annual Conference, 12 July 2015, University of Maryland, USA

Lowry, J. & Mamvura, B., The ICA’s Africa Strategy, 23rd Biennial Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) General Conference, 8–12 June 2015, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Lowry, J., Civil Society Advocacy for Records as Evidence in the Open Government Partnership Process, InterPARES Trust Research Seminar, 20 May 2015, London, UK

Lowry, J., Signals over Time: Data Longevity and the Kenya Open Data Portal, Technical and Field Related problems of Traditional and Electronic Archiving, 15–17 April 2015, Radenci, Slovenia

Lowry, J., Evidence-based Open Government: Solutions from Norway and Spain, DLM Forum, 12–14 November 2014, Lisbon, Portugal.

Lihoma, P. & Lowry, J., Access Restrictions and the Surveillance of Dissent in the Malawi National Archives under the Single-Party State, Forbidden Access: Censoring Books and Archives, 6–7 November 2014, London, UK.

Lowry, J. & Shepherd, E., The Open Government Partnership: Implications for National Archives and Civil Society, Archives: Political Powers: Civil Society, 24th International Institute for Archival Science of Trieste and Maribor, 20–21 October 2014, Trieste, Italy.

Lowry, J., Open Government / Closed Records: Information Asymmetry in the Study of Access to Information, 6th Annual Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI), 14–18 July 2014, University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Lowry, J., Open Government and Trustworthy Records: Benchmarking Regulatory Frameworks and Capacity, Accountability, Transparency and Access to Information, 1st International Conference of the International Council on Archives, 23–24 November 2013, Brussels, Belgium

Lowry, J. & Seles, A., Culture or Accountability? The Primary Function of Government Archives and its Implications for Convergence, Accountability, Culture and Ethics, Archives and Records Association Conference, 28–30 August 2013, Cardiff, UK

Lowry, J. & Thurston, A., National Archives in the Open Digital Environment, XXII Biennial Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) General Conference, 3–7 June 2013, Nairobi, Kenya

Lowry, J. & Thurston, A., Aligning Records Management with ICT / e-Government and Freedom of Information in East Africa, A Climate of Change, International Council on Archives Congress, 20–24 August 2012, Brisbane, Australia.

Lowry, J., Record-keeping Systems in Government Agencies, 19th SARBICA General Conference and Seminar on Electronic Records: Prepare for Change and Prevent Loss, 24–28 June 2012, National Archives of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand

Lowry, J., Aligning Records Management with eGovernment and Freedom of Information in East Africa, 42nd International Conference of the Round Table on Archives (CITRA), 11-18 September 2010, Oslo, Norway.

Lowry, J., Some Effects of Record-Keeping on Poverty and the Enjoyment of Human Rights in Africa, Archives Without Borders International Congress, 30-31 August 2010, The Peace Palace, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Lowry, J., The Role of Mentorship in Distance Education and Training, Back to the Future? Annual Records Management Society Conference, 19–21 April 2009, Brighton, UK

Lowry, J., Parity between Word and Deed in the Description of Audiovisual Materials and their Digital Surrogates, Archiving and Digitisation: Dreams and Nightmares, 12th SEAPAVAA Conference and General Assembly, 23-27 June 2008, Manila, Philippines.

Lowry, J., Recalling Impressions: Metadata Element Sets for Miniature Cuttings, Leaving Impressions – Planting Ideas, 2006 Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand Conference, 23-24 October 2006, Adelaide, Australia.


Seminars

Lowry, J., Archives and Power, invited talk at University of Glasgow, 21 June 2018, Glasgow, UK

Lowry, J., Archives and Imperialism, invited talk to the Australian Society of Archivists, 29 May 2018, Melbourne, Australia

Gilliland, A. & Lowry, J., The Role of Archives in Addressing Refugee Crises, The National Archives Big Ideas Seminar Series, 29 March 2018, London, UK

Lowry, J., Public Discourse and the Archival Threshold, invited talk at Post Truth Archives seminar, Northumbria University, 11 October 2017, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Invited participant, Record DNA: Reconceptualising the life of digital records as the future evidence base, 20 July 2017, Northumbria University, UK

Banton, M., Lowry, J. & Hiribarren, V., The Postcolonial Problem of Displaced Archives, Archives and Society Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 15 March 2016, London, UK

Lowry, J., Archives at the End of Empire, Department of History Research Seminar, University of Liverpool, 14 December 2015, Liverpool, UK

Lowry, J., Access to Information: Theoretical and Political Considerations, UCL Department of Information Studies seminar, 23 September 2015, London, UK

Lowry, J., An Information Economics Approach to Analysing Government Openness, ICARUS Research Seminar, 4 December 2014, London, UK

Lowry, J., The Records of the Kenya Government: Migrated Archives, Digital Records and Access to Information. Standing Conference on Library Materials in Africa (SCOLMA) Seminar, 22 October 2013, Cambridge, UK


Workshops, Short Courses and Summer Schools

Digital Tools and Environment in the Era of Artificial Intelligence, course for the Bachelor in Records Management and Archival Science, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, Spring 2021.

Digital Records Curation Programme (DRCP) Study School for Archival Educators, with Margaret Crockett, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana, 3-7 August 2020.

Digital Records Preservation workshop, with Juliet Erima, 3rd annual conference of the Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists, 5 November 2019, Mombasa, Kenya.

Surfacing Provenance in Shared Archival Heritage workshop for the Forum of National Archivists, with Njörður Sigurðsson, Adelaide, Australia, 23 October 2019.

Digital Records Curation Programme (DRCP) Study School for Archival Educators, with Margaret Crockett, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana, 5-9 August 2019.

Preservation of Documentary Heritage for Peace workshop, with Alex Miskin and Cherry Leonardi, Juba Community Learning Centre, Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, Juba, South Sudan, 24 July 2019.

Digitisation Planning workshop for the South Sudan National Archives, Juba, South Sudan, 23 July 2019.

Digital Records Management workshop, with Sonia Black, CARBICA Conference, Paramaribo, Suriname, 25 March 2019.

Records management trainer for Carter Center workshop on the right to information for women and girls, 14-15 November 2018, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Self-Documentation and Personal Record-Keeping for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, University of Liverpool, 28 June 2018, Liverpool, UK

Records Centre Management, African Union Commission, 19-23 December 2016, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia.

Systems for Authenticity: Using ISO16175, with Megan Venter, Conference and School on Authority, Provenance, Authenticity, Evidence, 28 October 2016, University of Zadar, Croatia

Co-convenor, with Ben Worthy (Birkbeck) and Judith Townend (SAS), Openness and… Seminar at the School of Advanced Studies, London, UK, 2016

Digital Records Management Functional Requirements, Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service, 19 September 2016, Nairobi, Kenya

Constitution de Groupes de réflexion autour de la stratégie Africaine de l’ICA (formation et recherche), with Jamaa Baïda, Formation, Recherche, Appui au Développement: Les Sciences et Métiers de l’Information Documentaire Face au Défide l’Émergence de l’Afrique, 3–4 December 2015, L’Ecole Superieure des Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication (ESSTIC), Yaounde, Cameroon

Digital Records Management and Preservation short course, 4–6 August 2015, University of Trinidad and Tobago.

Digital Records Management and Preservation workshop, 23rd Biennial Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA) General Conference, 8–12 June 2015, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

IRMT / ICA Digital Preservation in Low Resource Environments: A Core Curriculum, with Nancy McGovern, Archives and Cultural Industries, Second International Conference of the International Council on Archives, 11–15 October 2014, Girona, Spain.

Convenor, Government Records Management and Citizens’ Access to Information Policy Lab, Integrity Action Summer School, Central European University, 1–6 July 2013, Budapest, Hungary.


Editorial Activity

Monograph series editor: Routledge Studies in Archives series editor, 2018 - .

Monograph editorial boards: Keakopa, S. & Mosweu, T. (eds.), Cases on Electronic Records Management in the ESARBICA Region, IGI Global, forthcoming; Sebina, P., Balule, B., Moahi, K., Mnjama, N. & Grand, B. (eds.) Legal and Ethical Aspects of Information Management, IGI Global, forthcoming; Brown, D. & Czaputowicz, J. (eds.) Dealing with Disasters: Public Capacities for Crisis and Contingency Management, Editions juridiques Bruylant, 2019; Ngulube, P. (ed.) Handbook of Research on Heritage Management and Preservation, IGI Global, 2018; Gracy, K (ed.) Emerging Trends in Archival Science, Rowman and Littlefield, 2017; Jain, P. & Mnjama, N. (eds.) Managing Knowledge Resources and Electronic Records in Modern Organizations, IGI Global, 2016.

Journal editorial boards: Journal of the South African Society of Archivists, 2019 – 2022; ESARBICA Journal: Journal of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, 2019 - ; Journal of the Society of Nigerian Archivists, 2017 - ; Archives and Manuscripts: The Journal of the Australian Society of Archivists, 2015 - ; Archives and Records: The Journal of the [UK] Archives and Records Association, 2013 -.

Manuscript reviewer for Archival Science; Archivaria; Archives, the Journal of the British Records Association; Archives and Manuscripts; Archives and Records; Aslib Journal of Information Management; Education for Information – Interdisciplinary Journal of Information Studies; Information and Culture; International Journal of Digital Curation; Feminist Review; Organization Studies; Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture; Records Management Journal; South African Journal of Information Management.